Author Topic: Snake oil  (Read 779259 times)

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Offline AntiProtonBoyTopic starter

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Snake oil
« on: February 16, 2012, 02:57:09 pm »
Seeing that there are lot of snake oil like topics popping up everywhere on this forum, might as well start a dedicated thread on them for a good laugh.



... yet another video about pissing all over the laws of thermodynamics.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2013, 07:38:24 am by GeoffS »
 
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Offline Balaur

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2012, 03:24:23 pm »
I like this one:
 

Offline Jad.z

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2012, 05:03:45 pm »
I like this one:


I think I should get this guy, shove a motor's shaft up his ass, put a magnet in his hand and crank up the motor.
Now I connect a coil to a multimeter and hold the coil against him, while the motor is spinning the bullshit out of him.
Now thats what i call free electricity AT WORK.  ;D ;D ;D ;D  :P

 
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Offline PStevenson

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2012, 09:31:02 pm »
Seeing that there are lot of snake oil like topics popping up everywhere on this forum, might as well start a dedicated thread on them for a good laugh.



... yet another video about pissing all over the laws of thermodynamics.

that guy has the most boring voice ever. some of his "unique" designs reminded me of the barbeque that Bubbles made in Trailer Park Boys... 20 seconds in
I learned more from the EEVBlog than I did in school
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Offline damo

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2012, 12:59:16 am »
Good grief. Don't get me started on snake oil ::)

I for one believe that most, if not all of these don't have a chance at working (leaning heavily towards the all). For any of them to work they would need to fulfill one of two criteria.

1. Be an open system where energy is entering the system from an external source. E.g. PV, Wind, etc.
2. Break the laws of thermodynamics. E.g. ... ... I have no examples of this ;D

If these systems really work, they would need to fit into the first criteria as it is accepted that the second one is a load of garbage (read BS). Therefore an inventor would need to explain where the external source of the energy comes from and I've heard it all folks. Everything from heat through to zipons (lol @ zipons). This external energy would need to be measurable is some way and a common excuse is that the energy is unmeasurable by conventional equipment (see cold electricity lol)

An invention that, IMO, has promise is currently being "marketed" by a convicted scammer by the name of Dennis Lee (surely everyone has heard of him). This one is probably the most well known of the snake oil, Google his name if you want a bit of a laugh. Some other unfortunates share his name, but you'll get the gist of it.

More food for thought... I read somewhere that Zero Point energy has been confirmed by NASA (or some other institute) as being real. Problem is that it is random and uniform in nature so extremely difficult, if not impossible to leverage.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll get flamed, corrected and persecuted for this so go for it guys. ;D
 

Offline AntiProtonBoyTopic starter

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2012, 01:36:57 am »
Yeah, the Casimir Effect has been known for over half a century. But to measure the effect just above the noise floor, you will need to separate capacitor like plates with nanometre precision. 
 

Offline gregariz

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2012, 01:57:07 am »
Good grief. Don't get me started on snake oil ::)

I for one believe that most, if not all of these don't have a chance at working (leaning heavily towards the all).

Rene Rivkin once said that 9/10 companies are formed with the sole purpose of conning investors out of their money... so you probably are pretty close to the truth.
 

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2012, 07:13:44 pm »
More food for thought... I read somewhere that Zero Point energy has been confirmed by NASA (or some other institute) as being real. Problem is that it is random and uniform in nature so extremely difficult, if not impossible to leverage.
This would go against your second point, it would violate the second law of thermodynamics.
 

Offline G7PSK

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2012, 08:37:09 pm »
Is it even possible to measure zero energy surely the act of measurement itself would put energy into the system. You also need to extract a finite amount of energy in order to measure the energy level.
 

Offline RCMR

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2012, 01:42:34 am »
But wait... there's more...  Look what you can do with a jar of a suitably excitable gas in a microwave oven -- you can call it ball-lightning and get over-unity "quantum energy" out of it.

Honest   :o



 

Offline G7PSK

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2012, 09:41:37 am »
Bloody KGB! I did that twenty years ago.  I put a six inch florescent tube in my micro wave and turned it on at full power and watched the tube glow super bright.

Looks like Gorbachev brother as well. 
 

Offline ejeffrey

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2012, 10:03:09 am »
More food for thought... I read somewhere that Zero Point energy has been confirmed by NASA (or some other institute) as being real. Problem is that it is random and uniform in nature so extremely difficult, if not impossible to leverage.

Zero point energy is real, has been measured in many types of systems, and is not a source of free energy.  The  simple reason is that 'zero point' means that the lowest possible energy of a system is not zero.  Since there is no lower energy state, you can't extract the energy.
 

Offline damo

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2012, 12:30:25 am »
More food for thought... I read somewhere that Zero Point energy has been confirmed by NASA (or some other institute) as being real. Problem is that it is random and uniform in nature so extremely difficult, if not impossible to leverage.

Zero point energy is real, has been measured in many types of systems, and is not a source of free energy.  The  simple reason is that 'zero point' means that the lowest possible energy of a system is not zero.  Since there is no lower energy state, you can't extract the energy.
Yes, but the snake oil sales people would have us believe you can
 

Offline IanB

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2012, 01:32:13 am »
I like this one:

Hey, this guy has credibility. He is using Fluke meters! How can you disbelieve?  :)
 

Offline PeterG

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2012, 06:16:09 am »
Yet another 'Secret', 'Free Energy' scam.

http://www.hojomotor.com/

Regards
Testing one two three...
 

Offline AntiProtonBoyTopic starter

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #15 on: February 22, 2012, 07:03:05 am »
Wow, they don't even shy away from the term "perpetual motion".
 

Offline MarkS

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2012, 12:26:00 am »
A word of caution for anyone that likes the recommended videos on your YouTube page...

DON'T click on the videos in this thread! I am now inundated with free energy crap! YouTube doesn't provide a way to tell it that you are not interested in the recommended video, so it can take months to clear up. I once clicked on a greeting card making video because the thumbnail deceptively looked rather technical and interesting and the title was ambiguous. YouTube thought making greeting cards was a hobby of mine for over a year! ??? It didn't help that the greeting card hobbyists cannot adequately title a video. Must have clicked on a dozen more after that one by mistake.  >:(
 

Offline RCMR

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2012, 03:58:01 am »
A word of caution for anyone that likes the recommended videos on your YouTube page...

DON'T click on the videos in this thread! I am now inundated with free energy crap! YouTube doesn't provide a way to tell it that you are not interested in the recommended video, so it can take months to clear up.
Come on -- you do know you can ignore YouTube's recommendations don't you?

It's not compulsory to watch a video just because YouTube (erroneously) thinks it's something you might be interested in.
 

Offline MarkS

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #18 on: February 24, 2012, 04:55:35 am »
Come on -- you do know you can ignore YouTube's recommendations don't you?

It's not compulsory to watch a video just because YouTube (erroneously) thinks it's something you might be interested in.


Oh I know. I use YouTube to find videos that fit my interests. As such, the recommended videos typically line up with things that I want to watch. I can ignore the crap, but it is still annoying.
 

Offline AntiProtonBoyTopic starter

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #19 on: February 24, 2012, 08:33:18 am »
After inexplicably getting flooded with girly make-up and shopping recommendation videos, I practically stopped paying attention to them.
 

Offline electrode

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #20 on: February 24, 2012, 09:46:50 pm »
I just stumbled upon the www.hojomotor.com site that PeterG mentioned; got there from a sidebar ad. Amazing:
Quote from: Fake Shill
“I have been trying to build a “free energy” zero point generator for years and finally your guide taught me how! It took me 3 afternoons to build mine.You guys are going to change the world with this.”

Oh I know. I use YouTube to find videos that fit my interests. As such, the recommended videos typically line up with things that I want to watch. I can ignore the crap, but it is still annoying.

Go to your video history in youtube and delete the rubbish you've been watching. Maybe that will remove the relevant video suggestions too?
 

Offline Simon

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #21 on: February 24, 2012, 10:18:50 pm »
Yet another 'Secret', 'Free Energy' scam.

http://www.hojomotor.com/

Regards

I watched one similar that went on and on about making panels, swear it was made by the same lot, I just got well fed up as much as I wanted to whatch it all.
 

Offline Tube_Dude

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2012, 01:36:21 am »
Anyone talk about "snake oil"...   8)
Jorge
 
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Offline SgtRock

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #23 on: February 25, 2012, 02:32:24 am »
Greetings EEVBees:

--I think Rodrigues is one of the funniest men who ever lived. He was lampooning electronic snake oil and audiophoolery from the beginning. As I find more good ones on the subject, I will post them here.





"Three weeks in the lab will save you a day in the library every time"
R. Stanley Williams 1951 -

Best Regards
Clear Ether
« Last Edit: February 25, 2012, 02:36:18 am by SgtRock »
 

Offline RJSC

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Re: The snake oil thread...
« Reply #24 on: February 26, 2012, 02:46:11 pm »
I like this one:

Hey, this guy has credibility. He is using Fluke meters! How can you disbelieve?  :)

+1

Yeah...
He's using Flukes, he means business! If he was using a cheap meter, nah... its just some cheap scammer...

 ;D
 


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